[Shumi_21]

Source

The official Indian government statistics of road accidents, injuries and fatalities for the year 2017 are out and the news continues to be bad. As per the latest data, in 2017, a total of 464,910 road accidents were reported in the country, claiming 147,913 lives and causing injuries to 470,975 persons, which translates into 405 deaths and 1,290 injuries each day from 1,274 accidents. This also means 16 killed and another 53 injured every hour on Indian roads. And these are the officially reported accidents. And there must be a fair number that go unreported across the length and breadth of India.

The number of road accidents has seen a decline from the peak of 501,423 in 2015 to 480,652 in 2016 and further to 464,910 in 2017. The number of persons injured has been on the decline since 2015; in percentage terms, the number of accidents in 2017 went down by 3.3 percent and injuries by 4.8 percent compared to 2016. But on the other hand, the number of lives lost due to road fatalities reduced by just 1.9 percent.

National Highways, which constitute approximately 2 percent of India's total road network of over 56 lakh kilometres, accounted for 30.4 percent of total road accidents and 36.0 percent of deaths in 2017, while accidents on State Highways and other roads constituted 25 percent and 44.6 percent respectively. In case of fatality, State Highways and other roads accounted for 26.9 percent and 37.1 percent, respectively

What continues to be a huge concern is that among the vehicle categories involved in road accidents, two-wheelers, which is the most preferred and affordable mode of personal transport, account for the highest share (33.9%) in total accidents and fatalities (29.8%) in 2017. Additionally, in terms of road-user categories, the share of two-wheeler riders in total fatalities has been the highest (33%) in 2017, while pedestrian road-users comprise 13.8 percent of people killed in road accidents during 2017

In terms of the main factors behind road accidents, over-speeding topped the list and contributed to 70.4 percent of all the accidents, which accounts for 66.7 percent lives lost and 72.8 percent individuals being injured

Although the whole article makes for some eye opening reading on how dangerous our roads actually are, the above infographic is especially staggering. More than 3000 people lost their lives while using their mobile phones on the road! We all can quote at least one instance of an errant driver/rider almost causing an accident because he/she was looking at their phone rather than the road. I think use of phones while driving/riding should be brought in the ambit of dangerous driving. It's really unfortunate that we continue to lose so many lives to road accidents.

[GTO]

Even a single life lost on the road is one life too many. India unfortunately leads the world in road fatalities.

That said, this is perhaps the first time that we are seeing a decline in the number of accidents & deaths. That's a step in the right direction IMHO, especially when you consider that over 20 lakh new vehicles (cars, two-wheelers, CVs) are added to our roads every month.

Compared to 2015, it's almost a 10% decline in the number of accidents, despite 5 crore additional vehicles on the road . I guess better quality of highways and newer + safer vehicles are major contributors here. One cannot argue that the many government initiatives - (mandatory ABS in CVs, speed alerts, the upcoming ABS + Airbags + crash testing for cars etc.) - are also making a difference.

Now, the government really needs to get cracking on strict driving licence requirements. Equally, I might add, the responsibility needs to be shared. As drivers & riders, we need to follow the best practices as well.

[avisidhu]

Originally Posted by GTO

..... I guess better quality of highways and newer + safer vehicles are major contributors here.
.....
Now, the government really needs to get cracking on strict driving licence requirements. Equally, I might add, the responsibility needs to be shared. As drivers & riders, we need to follow the best practices as well.

What you said is borne out by statistics as well. Almost the entire reduction in accidents is courtesy heavy vehicles, and the figures are flat for cars and bikes. Which means it's the improvement in highways that has been the real cause of reduction in accidents.

And which also points to a grim reality that our cities continue to be unsafe with no visible improvement in driving behavior

[SmartCat]

Bihar data is a bit disappointing. I thought liquor ban would result in steady decrease in fatalities.

Overspeeding as the cause for 100,000 deaths doesn't make sense. It seems like a "catch-all" category. Highway accidents need to be investigated and causes for accident properly classified (Eg: tyre burst, overtaking mistakes, loss of control due to overloading, driver carelessness at road intersections, drowsy driving, blinding headlights, loss of control during rains/fog etc)

Without proper data on accidents and fatalities, authorities cannot come up with solutions

[vb-saan]

Stricter rules alone can bring down two major reasons of accidents and fatalities – more than 100K lives lost on Overspeeding and Driving on wrong side!

[blackwasp]

Originally Posted by Shumi_21

The official Indian government statistics of road accidents, injuries and fatalities for the year 2017 are out and the news continues to be bad.

Thanks for sharing Schumi_21. Grim numbers these are. Equally shocking is how little we value life in India. I mean come on, the easily avoidable causes like over-speeding, wrong side, use of mobile etc. are just too high. The speeding cases are an eye opener. If this doesn't get people to drive within limits, nothing will.

I also think insurance companies should now start offering penalties for accident cases where speeding has been proven. I know some cases where insurance claims were rejected on account of seatbelts (cars) and helmets (2 wheels) not being worn.

[avisidhu]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

.......
I also think insurance companies should now start offering penalties for accident cases where speeding has been proven. I know some cases where insurance claims were rejected on account of seatbelts (cars) and helmets (2 wheels) not being worn.

And perhaps also time to make Dashcams mandatory for all four wheelers? The sheer amount of accidents thus captured could help in some change of driving behavior.

Chandigarh traffic office in fact mandates people to sit and watch such footage before paying fines. A 10 minute video clip to be played on all TV channels in the morning, might not be such a bad idea.

[PGA]

I have some radical thoughts on the issue, IMHO the problem is huge and only deteriorating by the day. Local traffic police in any city has been overwhelmed. While deaths and injuries illustrate a story, daily skirmishes and bruises in the city are often not reported but are leading to some serious issues both at personal and social levels.

I feel till the time infrastructure is ready to take the traffic and it's management, some harsh and serious efforts are required from the enforcement authorities. Some of these which come to my mind are

Passing the new vehicle act which is struck in parliament for such a long time.

Tinker ECU of all vehicles to put speed and pick up limitations.

Horns and full beams completely banned in the city areas.

Integrate DL, RC and insurance of all the vehicles in the country and any mismatch should lead to impounding of the vehicle.

Drunken driving, over speeding, wrong side driving and rash driving should incur provisions of IPC comparable to ones for intentions to homicide. These should be applicable to two wheelers in the city as well.

Knocking down a cyclist and a pedestrian should be non bailable.

Multiple tech solutions like traffic cameras and radars to manage highways.

May be a little extreme thoughts but I feel they are urgently required to bring sanity on the roads.

[V.Narayan]

One casualty* every 70 seconds round the clock.

*Casulty = death or injury

[silverado]

44k persons killed only in 2 wheeler accidents yearly. While this is expected with the huge number of 2 wheelers in use, but study needs to be done on how many deaths were due to lack of helmets.

Even today Cities like Pune do not have strict enforcement regarding wearing a helmet.This has been a problem with Pune since long, but same has started happening in Mumbai as well.( People not wearing helmets can be easily spotted in road ) even on main roads.

Another problem is growing impatience of motorists.This has resulted in all sorts of traffic violations like wrong side driving, lane cutting, excessive honking and road rage.Infra in cities has simply not kept up with growing number of vehicles which is a major cause for this behavior IMO.

[jpcoolguy]

Disheartening to see TN topping the accidents list every year. I remember reading a study which points to some unscientific curves and turns, some sort of blindspots, in NH4 (Chennai-Bangalore highway and particularly near Kanchipuram) and NH45 (Chennai-Trichy highway) which leads to huge number of accidents in these stretches. And not to forget the notorious ECR (East Coast Road) between Chennai-Pondicherry. Couple this with a some nice tarmac in these stretches it is surely receipe for disaster with the vehicles overspeeding on seeing the good roads once they are out of city limits.

[RedTerrano]

Originally Posted by smartcat

Without proper data on accidents and fatalities, authorities cannot come up with solutions

In my opinion, the authorities are also part of the problem.
Unscientifically constructed speed breakers/rumbler strips
Unpainted
Total lack of any signage
Allowing shops and eateries to be constructed right till the edge of highways

I also find no mention of animals.
Cattle sitting right in the middle of the road is a huge safety risk. I have suffered (and survived) this recently, when I drove through all the states in the North East.
Here is a news article about the problem.
Notice the numbers are only from Punjab
https://www.india.com/news/india/300...aayog-2042699/

[amya]

In India, there is evident lack of real time service integration between various EMS organizations, ambulance networks and their tie up with local hospitals, police etc.
About 80% victims in such incidents die during first 60 minutes (known as ‘Golden Hour’ in ER
terms) due to lack of timely help. Not all the emergencies get reported. That number can be
much bigger.
Due to medical or other challenges such as very limited language ability, anxiety and panic
attacks etc. the person in emergency situation may not be able to self-advocate or share important details to get timely help.
To help the victim in such situations, it becomes necessary for the local authorities and medical
professionals to have that information available without any delay. And for that, there needs to be a system which covers the 3 important aspects of emergency response in Golden Hour, Identification, Information and Notification; almost instantly and concurrently, to save precious minutes.
After leaving my IT career of 12 years, I jumped on the Start-up wagon and have been developing a solution for this problem since last couple of years. As of now, we are almost past the Beta and have a MVP ready.
Lets talk: amitd0712@gmail.com.
Tackling this problem is a mammoth task, but like its said above, every single life is worth saving.

[Memphis]

IMHO the change needs to be systemic - and the grassroots touchpoint has to be creating awareness among newer drivers (classroom level education, just like sex ed, etc) and authoritarian implementation of rules when issuing and renewing driving licences.

https://savelifefoundation.org/. These folks are doing some good work in this area. Wish I had more time from my day job to get more involved in this effort.

[Abhinav6683]

Why don't we get a comparison of Fatalities with the car maker. Atleast you get to see which are the safest cars.